


Reach

by Macksayev



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Ben to Ren, F/M, Sensing, Shippy if you Squint, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-02
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-17 19:08:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5882167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Macksayev/pseuds/Macksayev
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ben Solo is young when he learns that he can sense people. People he loves, people he hates, people he doesn't know.</p>
<p>He trains himself to sense the most important people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reach

Shades of light in his conscious is how Ben Solo first identifies his parents. He knows them as Mom and Dad, of course. 

 

However, like everyone else, they are  _ there _ to the four year old, whether they are in the same room or not.

 

At five, he is agitated and unable to sleep on Coruscant. Ben stomps into an overlong meeting and asks his mother why he can't shut off the world. She mistakes his restlessness for insomnia or childish fear of the dark and carries him back to bed. 

 

To cheer him up and make him forget that they were meant to go somewhere,  _ anywhere _ tonight, she lifts him high above her head, rushing left and right in the ample space of the corridor. She holds on just tight enough, letting him spread his arms and pretend he’s an X-Wing, screeching and laughing, his problems momentarily forgotten.

 

At seven, when he hides before he sees the other politician’s children looking to “play” again he finally pinpoints the reason why it bothers him when the air thickens or quiets, or screeches or whispers. He can  _ sense _ them.

 

Mom is like the sound of a bell. Clear, authoritative, pleasant. Her presence makes his nightmares fade, his doubts lessen, his aches subside. 

 

He notices it that much more when she is away in meetings. The new government is far more important than a child's need for his mother, he supposes. The voice in his head says he's weak for crying at night when she leaves him alone for too long.

 

Dad’s presence is rougher, like the sudden jerking movement in take off of the Millennium Falcon; Ben thinks that must be because he’s always waiting for Dad to join them.

 

At eight, he can sense his father the moment his feet touch the same planet he’s on, and it hardly pleases his mother that it means that he will immediately run off- school, lessons, or lectures be damned.

 

From far away he can scarcely hope to draw comfort from his father, so it is that much worse when Leia sends him away. 

 

Uncle Luke is a Jedi who can help him learn the ways of the Force. Everything about his presence chafes against Ben. 

 

He knows it is meant to be calming. His presence feels like silk snagging on rough skin. Other than that, Master Luke is serene to the point of willful ignorance. 

 

Ben’s nightmares return in full force at the New Jedi Academy. 

 

He can see the other students are eager to welcome him, but his instincts tell him that they are liars. 

 

They want to find his weaknesses and use them to belittle his training. They see him as a threat. He is sure he hears their thoughts, they see him as a sideshow. Ben Solo: the only thing big enough to live up to that name is his ears. 

 

Their false auras of camaraderie stir a previously unknown rage in Ben. How can he hope to be the best if he doesn't protect himself from their assured treachery?

 

Master Luke worries after the dark circles under his eyes and the turmoil he says he can sense in Ben.

 

Ben learns to block his prying. If he can’t do something as simple as defeating his own nightmares he can at least stop anyone from sensing his weakness.

 

\--

 

Kylo Ren is on Starkiller base, looking for the scavenger girl. Her presence is like a deep sunburn in the worst possible way. Unfortunately she is learning to hide herself from him, and it is then when he is stretching out with the Force, reaching for her, that he feels it.

 

It feels the same way his stomach would lurch and drop a lifetime ago as he fumbled for control of a Corellian Light Freighter for the first and last time.

 

“Solo.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I had an idea that since Kylo Ren immediately felt Han's presence on Starkiller that he must have been attuned to his presence deeply to have felt it so immediately after all those years- similar to Vader and Obi Wan in Ep IV.
> 
> Comments appreciated <3


End file.
